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McCain and 'the Constitution'
Real Clear Politics ^ | 5/11/2006 | George Will

Posted on 05/10/2006 9:27:31 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam

WASHINGTON -- Presidents swear to ``protect and defend the Constitution.'' The Constitution says: ``Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.'' On April 28, on Don Imus' radio program, discussing the charge that the McCain-Feingold law abridges freedom of speech by regulating the quantity, content and timing of political speech, John McCain did not really reject the charge:

``I work in Washington and I know that money corrupts. And I and a lot of other people were trying to stop that corruption. Obviously, from what we've been seeing lately, we didn't complete the job. But I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I'd rather have the clean government.''

Question: Were McCain to take the presidential oath, what would he mean?

In his words to Imus, note the obvious disparagement he communicates by putting verbal quotation marks around ``First Amendment rights.'' Those nuisances.

Then ponder his implicit promise to ``complete the job'' of cleansing Washington of corruption, as McCain understands that. Unfortunately, although McCain is loquacious about corruption, he is too busy deploring it to define it. Mister Straight Talk is rarely reticent about anything, but is remarkably so about specifics: He says corruption is pandemic among incumbent politicians, yet he has never identified any corrupt fellow senator.

Anyway, he vows to ``complete the job'' of extirpating corruption, regardless of the cost to freedom of speech. Regardless, that is, of how much more the government must supervise political advocacy. President McCain would, it is reasonable to assume, favor increasingly stringent limits on what can be contributed to, or spent by, campaigns. Furthermore, McCain seems to regard unregulated political speech as an inherent invitation to corruption. And he seems to believe that anything done in the name of ``leveling the playing field'' for political competition is immune from First Amendment challenges.

The logic of his doctrine would cause him to put the power of the presidency behind efforts to clamp government controls on Internet advocacy. This is because the speech regulators' impulse is increasingly untethered from concern with corruption. It is extending to regulation in the name of ``fairness.'' Bob Bauer, a Democratic lawyer, says this about the metastasizing government regulation of campaigns:

``More and more, it is meant to regulate any money with the potential of influencing elections; and so any unregulated but influential money, in whichever way its influence is felt or achieved, is unfair. This explains the hand-wringing horror with which the reform community approached the Internet's fast-growing use and limitless potential.''

This is why the banner of ``campaign reform'' is no longer waved only by insurgents from outside the political establishment. Washington's most powerful people carry the banner: Led by Speaker Dennis Hastert, and with the president's approval, the Republican-controlled House recently voted to cripple the ability of citizens' groups called 527s (named after the provision of the tax code under which they are organized) to conduct independent advocacy that Washington's ruling class considers ``unfair.''

Which highlights the stark contradiction in McCain's doctrine and the media's applause of it. He and they assume, simultaneously, the following two propositions:

Proof that incumbent politicians are highly susceptible to corruption is the fact that the government they control is shot through with it. Yet that government should be regarded as a disinterested arbiter, untainted by politics and therefore qualified to regulate the content, quantity and timing of speech in campaigns that determine who controls the government. In the language of McCain's Imus appearance, the government is very much not ``clean,'' but is so clean it can be trusted to regulate speech about itself.

McCain hopes that in 2008 pro-life Republicans will remember his pro-life record. But they will know that, regarding presidents and abortion, what matters are Supreme Court nominees. McCain favors judges who think the Constitution is so radically elastic that government regulation of speech about itself is compatible with the First Amendment. So Republican primary voters will wonder: Can President McCain be counted on to nominate justices who would correct such constitutional elasticities as the court's discovery of a virtually unlimited right -- one unnoticed between 1787 and 1973 -- to abortion?

McCain told Imus that he would, if necessary, sacrifice ``quote First Amendment rights'' to achieve ``clean'' government. If on Jan. 20, 2009, he were to swear to defend the Constitution, would he be thinking that the oath refers only to ``the quote Constitution''? And what would that mean?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government
KEYWORDS: mccainfeingold
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1 posted on 05/10/2006 9:27:32 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: Unam Sanctam
Presidents swear to ``protect and defend the Constitution.''

So do Senators... and so did my son.

One of the proudest days of my life, my son called out of the blue and said, "well dad, I took the oath"....

2 posted on 05/10/2006 9:30:36 PM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
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To: Unam Sanctam
McCain told Imus that he would, if necessary, sacrifice ``quote First Amendment rights'' to achieve ``clean'' government. If on Jan. 20, 2009, he were to swear to defend the Constitution, would he be thinking that the oath refers only to ``the quote Constitution''? And what would that mean?

I'm generally the last guy who wants to interrupt some good McCain bashing, but he wasn't the elected official who signed that asinine bill into law.

3 posted on 05/10/2006 9:30:42 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: Unam Sanctam
John McCain must never be President.
4 posted on 05/10/2006 9:31:45 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Unam Sanctam

I know alot of people who really like this disgrace of a public servant and who would like to see him be president. When I mention the illegal campaign finance "reform" act that he is responsible for most people either agree with him, or their eyes just glaze over. Be afraid.


5 posted on 05/10/2006 9:32:29 PM PDT by frankiep (Visualize Whirled Peas)
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To: Unam Sanctam
I doubt McCain would care any less for the First Amendment than President Bush, who signed this farce(CFR)into law in the first place.
6 posted on 05/10/2006 9:33:29 PM PDT by KoRn
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To: dead

He is responsible for writing the bill and getting it passed. But don't forget President Bush, he is responsible for allow this illegal piece of garbage to pass by not vetoing it. There is plenty of blame to go around on this one.


7 posted on 05/10/2006 9:34:32 PM PDT by frankiep (Visualize Whirled Peas)
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To: All
McCain and 'the Constitution'

He actually read it? Man, he could've fooled me. Our points of quarrel start at his views on the First amendment and just keep getting worse as we go down the line.

8 posted on 05/10/2006 9:40:12 PM PDT by AZ_Cowboy ("I didn't come here for a barfight, but if you insist....")
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To: frankiep
There is plenty of blame to go around on this one.

No doubt.

9 posted on 05/10/2006 9:40:35 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: dead

Correct it was signed by a big government president, but, he WROTE it!.


10 posted on 05/10/2006 9:43:59 PM PDT by SeaWolf (Orwell must have foreseen the 21st Century Democratic Party when he wrote 1984)
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To: Unam Sanctam
"McCain told Imus that he would, if necessary, sacrifice ``quote First Amendment rights'' to achieve ``clean'' government."

I fervently believe and hope that the political Republican Primary process will dump this turkey back to Az, FROM WHERE HE CAME. This certifiable idiot has already done extreme and calamitous damage to the Constitution of the US, qualifing himself as a "domestic enemy" with his McCain- Feingold bill that destroyed the first amendmentof the constitution of the US. This guy is one sick puppy.

11 posted on 05/10/2006 9:46:37 PM PDT by de Buillion (The USA needs a CONSERVATIVE political party NOW! (republicans don't qualify))
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To: Unam Sanctam
Hey McCain, how about a simple law that says that the only people that can donate money or anything else of value to a federal candidate are people that are registered to vote for the candidate?

No more lobbyists, no more groups like HillPac or Soros sticking their noses in elections they have no business being involved in and people would register to vote and become involved because they would have real power. And the politicians like McCain would have their butts at home because that's the only place they could raise $$$.

12 posted on 05/10/2006 9:49:56 PM PDT by isthisnickcool (What is is about "illegal" you don't understand?)
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To: isthisnickcool

~LOL~ he hardly ever sets foot in the state.. was here a few days during Easter break and managed to get red in the face (from anger) when he made it to Sun City and started talking open borders. The guy is a Grade A fraud.


13 posted on 05/10/2006 9:52:14 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
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To: bnelson44

Congratulations for a great son.


14 posted on 05/10/2006 9:52:56 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: frankiep
"He is responsible for writing the bill and getting it passed. But don't forget President Bush, he is responsible for allow this illegal piece of garbage to pass by not vetoing it. There is plenty of blame to go around on this one. "

I voted for GWB twice. And that was for one reason- the war on terror. He is the only president that can lead us in this war. But, I really believe that bush signed this bill as a political maneuver THINKING that SCOTUS would kill it. They killed part of it, but accepted part of it. So this Idiot McCain bill became law of the land. WE CANNOT HAVE THIS TURKEY AS OUR CANDIDATE IN 08! And Guilliani isn't any better! They're both RINO's.

15 posted on 05/10/2006 10:00:40 PM PDT by de Buillion (The USA needs a CONSERVATIVE political party NOW! (republicans don't qualify))
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To: Unam Sanctam

16 posted on 05/10/2006 10:01:22 PM PDT by heights
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To: frankiep
Don't mean to kick a dead horse in the face but the man has PTSD up to his eyeballs. He is sick and he needs to just stay in AZ and get some help.This guy needs to be far away from any kind of government power. Is there a doctor in the house?
17 posted on 05/10/2006 10:21:56 PM PDT by crabpott (' we are living in the strangest, most perilous, and unbelievable decade in modern memory' VDH)
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To: AZ_Cowboy
He actually read it?

It's obvious that most of our elected officials have no clue what the constitution says nor do they care.

18 posted on 05/10/2006 10:27:06 PM PDT by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: Unam Sanctam


"The Constitution? You mean that paper in the bathroom?"

-John McCain


19 posted on 05/10/2006 11:07:55 PM PDT by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President! www.dndorks.com)
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To: Unam Sanctam

McCain is correct, the money in politics does corrupt. Remember the "Keating 5"? It was originally SIX. McCain got a pass, Alan Cranston (D-CA) was too sick to be prosecuted, and Don Riegle (D-??) didn't run again. Can't remember the others, all dems. Funny how McCain hinted indirectly that his colleagues can be (or have been) corrupted by money.


20 posted on 05/10/2006 11:35:11 PM PDT by orchid (Defeat is worse than death, you have to LIVE with defeat.)
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